WARRI – UNITED States of America, USA, Consular General to Nigeria, His Excellency , John Bray, yesterday, expressed his country’s preparedness to help Nigeria establish peace and end the ongoing violence in the South -South region by Niger Delta Avengers and other militant groups. The Consular General stated this on Wednesday when he visited the former national chairman of Association of Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria, ATROMPCON, and Pere of Seimbiri Kingdom, Delta State, HRM Charles Ayemi-Botu at his Edjeba Palace Annexe, Warri. Bray, who was visiting Warri for the first time, asserted: “We are looking at whatever we can do to assist the Nigerian Government in establishing a peaceful, prosperous region in the South-South of Nigeria.” Shedding light on the visit, HRM Ayemi-Botu said the United States Consular General was in his palace to seek solution to the recent bombings of oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta. The monarch asserted : “He said he was coming to visit me as the Niger Delta is boiling viz-a-viz the recent bombing of oil pipelines and that he would like to find out the solutions to stop the bombing.” “He observed that immediately after the elections of last year, things were very peaceful, but from January this year, things started changing, so he wanted a way out “Physically, they had wanted how they can create an enabling environment to ensure that peace reigns because it is when there is peace that there is development,” Ayemi-Botu added. Speaking his mind, the traditional ruler called on the President Muhammadu Buhari -led Federal Government to “dialogue with the militants and see the region as part of his primary constituency , instead of engaging them with guns to save the economy from further collapse.”
Emma Amaize and Akpokona Omafuaire
